As the Christmas Holiday approached there was the rustling and bustle of getting ready. I (CM) had family coming from out of town and was also was due to have surgery. So I started with the shopping and wrapping early.
Every time that I would wrap a gift and put it with the others; Tonka was then determined to un-wrap them! I had to re-wrap two just because he was sure that the toy for the Grace; who is 18 mo's old was for HIM!
Finally the time came when the family arrived; at first Tonka wasn't sure about the two babies that were here. The "sounds" the 3 and 4 month olds were making were new. Everything is different -Why do their butts smell funny? Why can't I get close to smell their face? What is this thing that has a rubber top that smells different? Why can't I take the stuffed "baby" and tear it about like my other babies? Why am I being told NO, TONKA?
But don't feel sorry for the blind boy. Because it didn't take long for him to realize that the one he wanted to be close to was Grace! When ever Grace was at the table Tonka wasn't far away! Most of the time laying there waiting for that familiar sound he had realized was music to his ears and stomach!
Grace would call "ONKA, BITE" and proceed to make sure that "onka" had plenty of "bites"! At times he would even pretend to wait till she was out of the highchair; before he was trying to lick her face. Of course in his mind he was ONLY helping clean her off! He became very good at cleaning the highchair as well!
When that group of family left and I had few day days before Christopher and Laura got in; the signs of what was to be was like a scene from "A Christmas Carol" started. Tonka was into anything and everything. I should have listened to the "ghost of Christmas future" to see that Tonka was going to be trouble.
I couldn't go to the kitchen for even a glass of water with out Tonka becoming vocal sure of the fact that he should have something. Since he is so tall, his head is the right height for the counters and table; he was busted so many times for "surfing"! He so didn't care, it almost became a game for him. If he got fussed at he then would "attack" the recycling container or the kitchen rugs! "There take that, since I can't do it to CM or AP!"
It got so bad that we had to keep him out of the kitchen and put up a baby gate. Now USUALLY when Tonka has been in "trouble" and restricted he catches on.....not this time.
My mistake was assuming he had got the point. One morning while I was making pancakes for breakfast in came Tonka. Then it began; he started barking and making the funniest deep growl sound. Yet, it wasn't a growl that was something to be afraid of. When that didn't produce the pancakes (since he realized he liked pancakes thanks to Grace) he decided he would lie down to get what he wanted.
He was laying on his side "swimming" and continuing to bark and growl/howl. But that wasn't enough so he took his BIG PAWS and proceeded to grab my feet! I did mention that HE IS BLIND, right? I really am beginning to wonder about that. Oh yes my feet, that wasn't enough either. So he then tried to pull the rug I was standing on from under me! The whole time still being extremely vocal!! To the point that Christopher came upstairs to see what all the fuss was. Christopher had to help pull the moose out of the kitchen and up went the baby gate!
Now you would think that would have been the end of it right...NOT! He still stayed vocal while we ate and then went downstairs and was quiet. So again I ASSUMED he went to lie down. Later after the kitchen was clean, beds made, people dressed as we discussed our plans for the day all was quiet. Christopher went downstairs to play Wii and was down there for a while. I came down to take laundry down to a FREEZING family room. Christopher commented on how cold it was while I was trying to understand why. I still had the laundry in my hands so I went to put it in the laundry room to notice that the doggy door had been jammed!
Tonka had decided that the bone he was told could not go outside he was doing it anyways. So there was a 4 foot bone wedged in the doggy door so all the cold air was coming in! So I removed it and closed the doggy door, a little while later Tonka went to check out his bone. When he realized that I had removed it the barking began!
Like I said in the beginning, 2010 might start as a year of Tonka having "time-outs"!! How else to you punish a blind dog?
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